Sorry Larry, I'd rather be a pickle.

On VeggieTales, people often mistake Larry for a pickle, to which he replies, "I'm not a pickle, I'm a cucumber!"

Today, I learned why it's better to be a pickle.

I really enjoyed today's sessions of General Conference. It's always a challenge trying to choose my favorite - and I almost always end up with at least two or three favorites. My two favorite talks from today's sessions were from Elder David A. Bednar and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. It's not really fair to have favorites, but I do. And these two apostles are among my top three favorites.

Elder Holland spoke about the importance of words. Most importantly, how we use them. I learned a lot from his talk and I have set some goals on how I can apply it in my life. I also enjoyed a talk by Jay. E. Jensen of the Quorum of the Seventy about the hymns and other appropriate music.

But my favorite talk to day was Elder Bednar's about "The Parable of the Pickle". He talked about the process of changing a cucumber into a pickle and related it to our lives as we change who we are to be spiritually reborn. The three steps are:

1. Cleaning and preparing

2. Fully immersing and saturating the cucumber in salt brine

3. Sealing and purifying the pickles in a sterilized jar

One of the parts I liked the most was how he said that our souls need to be fully immersed in the Gospel. Sporadic or shallow "dipping" or "sprinkling" will not produce a spiritual transformation. Meaning, partial participation is not enough. We need to fully immerse ourselves in the Gospel, be fully active.

I will have more notes that I took from this talk and all the others, tomorrow, after the final session. For now, I just wanted to say that though I do really like cucumbers, I want to be a pickle.

(After this talk, I totally craved pickles! I had to grab a couple of spears before we had lunch! lol)

"S" is for...

Silly:  Aurora likes to eat my hair.  If I put her on my shoulders, she will lick and bite my head/hair.  Then when I ask her what she's doing, she laughs. lol  Silly girl!

Sudsy:  Aurora tries to eat the bubbles in her bath water.  She also tries to drink her bath water.  Silly, sudsy girl!

Sweet:  Sometimes I grab Rori, put both hands on each side of her head, bring her head to me and kiss her forehead.  She started doing it back last night.  I would kiss her, then she would grab my face with both her hands and kiss my forehead.  Back and forth.  Silly, sudsy, sweet girl!

Standing: Rori's standing.  She will pull herself up and then let go.  You can see that she wants to take steps but she's not there yet.  She gets into just about anything she can!  Silly, sudsy, sweet, standing girl!

Sleeping:  She's getting so much better at sleeping!  She was always good until last weekend when she realized she could get up by herself after I laid her down.  Fortunately, she is back to USUALLY going to sleep without problems again.  And when she doesn't, she plays a little then USUALLY goes to sleep when she's ready.  Silly, sudsy, sweet, standing, sleeping girl!

Screaming:  Aurora has found her voice.  Well, she had already found it, but now she likes to use it more!  She squeals and screams!  My favorite is when she just hollers out a "Eh!"  It's so funny!!!  Silly, sudsy, sweet, standing, sleeping, screaming girl!

Slobbery:  Those teeth still haven't cut!  But they are close!!!  In the meantime, Rori chews on and "gums" anything she can get her hands on!  Silly, sudsy, sweet, standing, sleeping, screaming, slobbery girl!

Sly:  While Aurora was playing, the dog came and laid down near her.  She pulled Big Sister's blanket down off the couch and started playing Peek-a-Boo with Simon!  Sneaky little thing!  Once Big Sister realized it was happening with HER blanket, she wasn't so amused. lol  Silly, sudsy, sweet, standing, sleeping, screaming, slobbery, sly girl!

Smiley:  Rori is almost always smiling!  Everyone always comments on it.  I love her smile, I think she has Ryan's smile. :D  When she is getting into something she isn't supposed to and I call out to her, she just turns around and flashes that smile... dang, she's already got that down! lol  Silly, sudsy, sweet, standing, sleeping, screaming, slobbery, sly, smiley girl!

Supportive:  Rori claps now!  She loves to clap when she sees people she loves - especially Daddy or Sister after school!  Silly, sudsy, sweet, standing, sleeping, screaming, slobbery, sly, smiley, supportive girl!

Scooting:  Last week, Rori started to crawl.  So when I tried to take her 8 month pics this week, it was not easy!  Everytime I'd lay her down with the teddy bear, she would immediately roll over and start crawling away!  I had to give her a toy to keep her occupied long enough to get ONE picture!  So instead, I took pics of her trying to scoot off instead of her staying put like an obedient child would. ;)  Silly, sudsy, sweet, standing, sleeping, screaming, slobbery, sly, smiley, supportive, scooting girl!

And here she is:






That's my Rori! :)

Seriously Sad

I am so seriously sad. Not just sad... I'm seriously sad.

I am super duper excited about my weekend in Utah coming up - so stinkin' excited!!! But I just found out one little piece of information that just put a little bit of a down-side to it.

I knew we were having a stake youth fireside that weekend. I assumed it had to do with the Trek the youth will be doing in July. Today I found out that I was wrong. It is not about the trek.

The fireside will be presented by Paul Cardall... see?

First of all - if you don't know Paul Cardall, SHAME ON YOU!!! He is an amazing musician. His music moves me... it MOVES me, people!!! One of my favorite pieces to play is by him. I'm currently working on an arrangement of his for Cadi's baptism, if she wants me to play for it. I just LOVE his music!!!

Did you notice all the many events he is scheduled for??? Yeah - one... OURS! I have never heard of any tours he does, any speaking events, any TOFW, or ANYTHING where I could see/hear him in person. And the ONE time I do - it's HERE - for FREE - and I'm actually supposed to be there for my calling! And I will be in a completely different state. :(

I am still glad to be going to Utah. It will be a blast!!! But I really, REALLY wish that fireside was going to be on a different weekend!!!

Sunday Sampling

Okay, a post about a little of everything...

Yesterday Acadia was sick. :( How unfair is it to be sick on a Saturday? Poor girl. She feels much better today though and that is definitely good! :)
Yesterday Ryan wasn't feeling well either. But he was a trooper and still went to work... late... but he went. Good boy. He is also feeling better. :)

As I mentioned on Friday, Aurora has begun to crawl and also is becoming (way too) good at pulling herself up to standing. Last night it was like a little light went on in her head, "I don't have to stay laying down when Mom puts me to bed!" ... so she didn't.

Two and a half hours. She would get up, play for a minute or two and then cry. And cry. And cry. Finally after a couple of hours we decided to just get her up. She sat up with us for about 30 minutes and then when I laid her down she went right to sleep. But this morning, bright and early, she was up at 6:30! All I heard were her fish turning on. lol Then a little before 7, she started crying. I changed her diaper and laid her back down but she just kept getting up and crying. UGH!!!

So, she went to bed REALLY late and then got up early. :( I just put her down for a nap and at the moment, I don't hear her getting up yet - I hope she actually takes her nap!!!

I do think this is just her getting used to her newly acquired skills. I really hope that after a couple of days she will not fight it so much and will just go to bed when I put her down and won't wake up at the crack of dawn just because she can. I really, really hope!!! lol

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This coming Tuesday is my DeMarle show. I don't know how many people can come, but I hope it ends up being a fun night no matter what. :) I really do like the product and want to get some stuff for us. I can't wait to get the muffin pan so I can throw my old one(s) away!!! I might even get rid of my Pampered Chef one since I don't use it - it is hard to clean the muffin cups in that! But with the DeMarle one, it's non-stick and even if there was something stuck in it, I could turn the cup inside out to make it super easy to clean! Plus - super easy storage, I can roll the thing up and stick a rubberband around it - hardly any storage space! :)

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It is official. No trip to CA for spring break. :( I'm greatly disappointed with the whole thing. We didn't get the Thanksgiving week off last year (even though Thanksgiving and the day after it are paid holidays for us) and now we didn't get the spring break week either. At this point, we're not positive when our next visit to Sac will be. It will depend on whether or not Ryan takes classes this summer. :S

However, there is a silver lining. :) Since we will not be going to Sacramento for a week, we are instead taking the two days Ryan does have available that week to go to Seattle! It will be our first time there. I have a couple of friends that we will be meeting up with, one is letting us stay with them so that will be really nice! They will show us around a little and it will be fun just to visit and let the babies play. Poor Cadi will be the lone "big kid" but I think she can handle it. She's actually very excited to go and has already started packing! lol

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I have been working on getting all of my past blog posts copied to my computer and I'm going to be printing it all up... hundreds of pages worth (!!!). I used to do that before, but I stopped printing them up about a year and a half ago. I need to do that again, so I am! It is nice that I did it before because when I changed blog locations, I still had my past posts. This way, in the event that "something" happens to my blog, I will not have lost my "journal entries", since that's what they often are. :)

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I've been keeping at my weight loss challenge with my friends. And I've done pretty well so far. :) I'm down almost 10 pounds since our challenge began in February, down a total of 17 pounds since the beginning of the year! I still have a ways to go though, I'm not near where I want to and should be. I just want to get back down to the pre-pregnancy weight, not trying to get super skinny or anything. I just want to be healthy and fit. :) It's a work in progress, but I'm getting there! :)

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My trip to Utah is fast approaching! :D I can't wait to go hang out with my friends for a few days - KID FREE!!! I have a lot to do first though. I have to make sure my house is in order to make it easier for Ryan, who will be staying home from work to watch the girls for me. :) What a sweetie!!!

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We are anxiously looking forward to Acadia's birthday and baptism! Ryan's parents will be here for her birthday/Father's day weekend. And then my family will be coming up right after that for her baptism weekend. Our friend, Landon will definitely be coming too - plane ticket is purchased and it's a "go". :) He gets to stay for a couple of weeks and will be here for July 4th to play "pyro" with Ryan and my cousins. That will be a BLAST!!!

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Well, I think that pretty much catches everything up for now. I have a busy day ahead of me today. It is Fast Sunday and also BYC. Not that I really have to do anything for Fast Sunday, it just is. lol But I do have lots to do for BYC. I've finished most of it, but I have some loose ends to tie up and I need to get myself showered and dressed for church. Oh, and I just got a call that we'll be taking our neighbor's 4 kids with us because she's taking her hubby to the ER. Eeks, I hope he's okay! Okay then, I'm off! So... TTFN!

She's a Crawler!

Today Aurora officially crawled! I watched her, it was not a scoot - it was a crawl! She also is getting REALLY good at pulling herself up to standing! Today, after she pulled herself up to stand with a laundry basket, she stood there only holding with one hand and trying to let go with that one too! She wants to be up and moving!

Acadia did many of the same things and ended up being an early walker... Rori is heading in that direction!

She is so cute! She is so proud of herself! And she's trying to get into more stuff now! Eeeks!!!

Aurora and the Shadow

I am trying to feed my child her lunch. But everytime I go to put the spoon to her mouth, she lunges forward, grabbing at her high chair tray. What is she doing? Finally I see it, my hand's shadow on her tray. She is trying to grab the shadow! It is so cute! She is really distracted by it though, and won't eat! lol

Kids should come with remote controls!

Wouldn't that be great? I'd LOVE the volume control! Ooh, and you could change the "channel" when they weren't acting appropriately for the situation they were in! And if they came with remote controls, I would get the upgraded models that had timer settings. Then I could program them to wake up at a specific time and go to sleep at a specific time... wouldn't that be great?

Today, I wish I could hit "pause", or even "slow motion", "rewind", and also "record"... but mostly "pause".

Aurora has been trying to pull herself up to standing for awhile now. She has gotten so close! Today as I was changing the sheets in her crib, she was playing on the floor next to me. She grabbed the bars of her crib from where she was sitting and pulled herself up to standing! This is the first time I have seen her do it completely by herself without falling!

Crazy girl. I have a feeling she will be very mobile, very soon! (So far, she just scoots and rolls around a bit.) I'm SO not ready!!! AAAAHHH!!!!

The Spirit of Elijah

I've mentioned in here before that I have a MySpace account. *gasp* And I've made some wonderful friends because of it! I've shared about the Vegas Trip I took to meet several of them and the Utah Trip I'm taking in just a few weeks to meet with them again! The other day, I shared with them some of my thoughts after attending a youth fireside on Sunday but I realized today that I never posted my thoughts in here. In the interest of time (and because I'm feeling kind of lazy at the moment), I'm just going to copy and paste...

The fireside tonight was so cool! I loved it!


One quote that struck me so hard that I almost started to cry was something along the lines of this... (I am TOTALLY paraphrasing)... (Oh, and it was by an apostle a hundred years ago, I think it was Ballard, related to M. Russell Ballard)... When the Elders are out finding people to share the gospel with, they are led by the righteous dead to find their posterity so that they will have family who are members so their work can be done.


Something along those lines. She had the youth think about it for a minute - what are the odds that they would be born into an LDS family? How many kids in their school are? How many people in their neighborhood? But they were. And they have ancestors who are righteous and are dead that need their work done. Who is going to do it for them?

I started thinking... Ryan is a first generation member and he loves genealogy work. I can see his righteous, dead ancestors prompting the sister missionaries to stop him when they saw him walking home from school.


My mom's mom joined the church because of a horrible car accident. In that accident, my mom was an infant and not in any sort of car seat or safety belt - just in a baby basket. The car rolled several times and when it finished rolling, my mom was lying in her basket OUTSIDE of the car, with a little pebble sitting on her forehead - not a scratch anywhere. The doors and windows were all closed. My grandma, on the other hand, had several broken bones, including both legs. My grandma has always said that angels saved my mom's life.

As my grandma recuperated at her mom(my great-grandma Aurora - who Rori is named after)'s house, she was bored out of her mind! When the missionaries knocked at their door, my great-grandma turned them away but my grandma called from the couch, "If you've got any literature, I'll read it- I've read everything in this house and I'll read anything you can give me!" ... She joined the church shortly after that.

I can very well see my righteous, dead ancestors being the angels who preserved my mother's life. And I can see them being the very same angels leading the missionaries to my great-grandma's door at a time when my grandmother would not let them get turned away.

My grandma did a bit of genealogy work and my aunt now has it. I need to get it from her.

When Christ was crucified, the very first thing he did was go to the righteous dead in the spirit world and proclaim that they had been redeemed, they were finally freed from their sins. He then organized them into groups to be missionaries, teaching the wicked who were dead. Those were the first two things he did! (D&C 138)


One of the missions of the church is to redeem the dead. Christ atoned for their sins but they still cannot receive all of the eternal blessings if the ordinances are not performed. So we get to do that. We get to be saviors to those who cannot do the work themselves.


It really is an amazing thought.

As I thought about our group, I was thinking how most of us were born in the church - the only one I can think of that for sure wasn't is Jenne... Jennealogy*. The first generation member in our group loves genealogy.


I just don't think this is a coincidence. Jenne, do you doubt for one moment that your righteous, dead ancestors had a hand in you receiving the gospel? Knowing that you would be able to do their work - the life saving ordinances that they could not do for themselves?

I don't.

*Jenne is obviously one of my friends. After she joined the church she fell in love with doing genealogy. Her "on-line" name is Jennealogy. The following is her response to that...

Sariah, you always make me smile. Thank you. And today I especially needed it.


You asked me about my conversion and family history. It was wanting to be with my dad again that compelled me to find religious truth so right there it was the Spirit of Elijah leading me to the church. I started with his temple work and that prompted me to get into family history and after getting started, I was hooked. And its just nice that my name works so well as a family history nickname. :-)

(Jenne's father had pased away a short time before she was introduced to the church. She had previously been Athiest but when she began associating with members of the church through a dance group, she started asking them about their beliefs in life after death.)

Here is the official quote that I paraphrased early on in my post...

"It was made known to me that it is because of the righteous dead who had received the gospel in the spirit world exercising themselves...Elders of the Church were sent to the homes of their posterity that the gospel might be taught to them and through their righteousness they might be privileged to have a descendant in the flesh to do the work for their dead kindred." - Elder Melvin J. Ballard (M. Russell Ballard's grandfather)

I thought, and still think, it is an amazing quote. Thank you Millie for sharing it with me/us!

Winter Quarters

Today the youth in our stake are participating in activities that will help to prepare them for a handcart trek they will be going on this summer.

For those who are not familiar with the history of the Mormon Pioneers, well, there's just so much history it's hard to recap.  Basically, the early members of the LDS church were persecuted horrendously.  They were driven from state to state, they were mobbed, their homes and crops were burned, they were violently abused, there was even an extermination order signed by the governor of Missouri at one point making it legal to kill Mormons. 

Nice, right?  So much for freedom of religion. 

So, the members were left with no choice.  After receiving no help or protection from the country that was supposed to have freedom of religion, they began to head west, into Indian Territory.  Interesting enough, the Indians, who had seen some of this persecution were often very friendly and helpful. 

Well, if you can imagine for a moment, having very little earthly possessions because a mob had destroyed them and then having to take your family (whether they were healthy or not) across the plains - hundreds of miles - with no cars, trains, airplanes or any other convenient luxury to assist you... it was quite a trek!  The lucky ones had a covered wagon and some horses or oxen to pull it.  As more and more people tried to leave, the provisions became less and less.  Out of desperation, the groups started using handcarts which they would push/pull themselves.  So now, you're taking your family to walk across hundreds of miles with only what you can fit in a handcart, which you will be pulling and pushing together.  Sound fun yet?
But wait, it gets better!

There were a number of handcart companies who fortunately made it to the Great Salt Lake Valley safely.  However, there were a few companies who ran into blizzards with no shelter and what little food they did have quickly ran out.  But let's imagine that you are among the lucky ones - you were able to get a handcart for your family early and weren't stuck in the early winter blizzards that stopped some of the others.  Still, can you imagine, having walked close to 1000 miles, your shoes have worn through and you are now barefoot.  You still have hundreds of miles left to go and you have reached snow covered mountains.  You now must walk (pushing and pulling your handcart) barefoot through the snow, up steep climbs, through freezing cold streams, etc.

The good news: You make it!  It takes you months, but you make it!  You might have lost a few toes, but you are safe and most (if not all) of your family makes it too!  Now all you have to do is build a house and plant some crops.  No rest for the weary!

So, that sounds unbelievable... yet it happend to thousands of early pioneers.  Many made it, some did not.  Some where buried along the way, others weren't even able to be buried because the ground was too frozen.  Then there were the unfortunate companies who became stranded in the early winter blizzards.  Many of them died.  Fortunately, those who had already arrived in the valley were willing to leave the comfort of their new home to go back in search of the stranded.  Some of those rescuers lost their lives as they saved the lives of others. 

This is a part of our history.  And to help the youth learn more about it and even experience some of the lesser challenges of it, they will be pushing and pulling handcarts this summer for 3 days.  I think that they will be traveling about 20 miles, but don't quote me on that.  They will be wearing "pioneer clothing" (though they are to all wear comfortable, 21st century shoes) and they will be sleeping on the ground (they will have sleeping bags).

Today, they are making bonnets for the girls to wear, leather covers for their journals which they will keep while on their trek, they even started making one of the handcarts that they will be using.  There were displays for them to get a visual of what things were like for some of the pioneers too.  And then, there was the trail of snow that they could walk on barefoot (or with burlap wrapped around their feet if they chose) to get a taste of how it felt.  Here are some pics:





This is an example of the bunks on the ships that some took from England to Boston.  There would be a whole family per bunk - basically a whole family per shelf!  Then you rotated with other families too - so you'd get out of bed then another family would climb in.  There would be up to 6 people sleeping in one of these little shelves! 





6 oz of flour, just to give you an idea of how little food they sometimes had to eat.  That would be all an adult would eat per day when the food began to be rationed.



I am so grateful for the sacrifice of the early pioneers.  Some people ask, "Why did they do it?  Why were they willing to sacrifice so much?"  They did it because they trusted God.  They did it because they wanted to live in a place where they could practice their religion in peace.  They did it because they had heard the call to gather in the West and they wanted to obey.

There is often so much focus on the sacrifices and trials they faced - for they were great!  But if you read the journal entries, there were happy times too.  There would be singing and dancing at night, the childen played games, the members of the groups helped one another, there were even babies born!  It was hard, but they made the best of it and did it joyfully! 

I admire the pioneers; I don't know if I could be as strong as they were.  I am grateful to them for the legacy they have left us. :)

If you would like more information about the Mormon Pioneers, check out what Wikipedia has to say, plus Wikipedia has more about the Mormon Handcart Pioneers, and this about the Mormon Trail.  And then there is this cool page, provided by the church, that shares info about the pioneers including many journal entries. 

Baby noises or rea communication?

Yesterday I was putting Rori on the floor with some toys and I said, "Would you like to play with your friends?" Her response, "Uh Uh" (as in the "no" kind)! It was a total coincidence but it was funny.

Then just now I was leaving the room and she started to fuss so I called to her, "You're just fine!" And she said, "Uh U-uh" (like "nuh uh" kinda, without the 'n')! Again - I'm sure a coincidence... but still - two days in a row with her "speaking her mind" or talking back or whatever you want to call it! lol

BTW, it is hard to spell those "uh uh" responses that we casually say. :S

One day in and I'm hooked!

Today I started working on my genealogy; I began entering my family information into PAF (Personal Ancestry File). To get more information, I e-mailed my mom and dad (and my sister who had done some of this work already too) and my mom got back to me rather quickly with some of her info! :)

This evening, as I was entering the information she gave me, I came across a little treasure. It's so simple and small but for some reason, I just LOVE it! As I entered my great-grandmother, Aurora's information, I noticed that her birthday was my daughter, Aurora's due date. My Aurora was named after my great-grandmother and I feel like that was just a little testimony to me that my Aurora really was meant to be the one named after her great-great-grandma.

I guess sometimes I've wondered why Acadia wasn't the one named after Aurora. But I always knew Acadia was supposed to be Acadia. And now I know that Aurora was supposed to be Aurora. :)

I think I've finally caught the "bug"! As I've entered the information I have so far, I'm seeing dates and realizing that this really IS history! It's my own, personal history! It's where I came from!

As I fed my daughter dinner tonight and thought about the small handful of names I have so far, I thought about how these people had lives too. They had families. They made meals and fed their children. They helped teach their children the skills they would need to survive in the world that they lived in. They had disagreements with each other, they played with each other. They are not just names on a page. They were real.

I'm getting really excited to find more names to enter into PAF. I'm getting even more excited to prepare names to take to the temple! This Sunday the youth will have a fireside on Family History Work. My friend will be leading it and I am really looking forward to it! I'm also looking forward to Tuesday night when I'll take the information I have so far to the Family History Center so I can learn where to go from there!

As I was just starting today, Ryan is a step or two (okay, a few more but who's counting? lol) ahead of me. He was searching for more names and finding family names back in the 1500's. I'm anxious to have my line traced back that far. I am anxious to see it go farther than that!

How exciting this is! It's our own little treasure hunt - I just can't believe it has taken this long for me to catch on!

I love my husband...

But the boy needs to stop bringing sweets into the house!!!

Two weeks ago he made chocolate chip cookies, one week ago he made ranger cookies (which are IMPOSSIBLE to resist!!!), and this week he brought home a dozen donuts!

Is he trying to sabatoge me? UGH!!!

I'm doing well though - in spite of his attempts to make me fatter! I have been eating better, tracking everything, drinking my water, and working out a lot! :) It feels good. :)

Our group weighs in every week and last week I got 2nd place for most % of weight lost that week! :) Made me feel good. I want to do well again this week. I don't think I'll lose quite as much as I lost last week, but I think if I keep working hard at it, I can lose at least one or two pounds. :)

Now will someone PLEASE tell my husband to stop tempting me with these sweets!?!?!?

What would you attempt to do...

... if you knew you would not fail?

This question has been on my mind a lot lately. My friend has it as a quote on her msn and so I keep seeing it and thinking about it. What would I attempt to do or accomplish?

My first thought was one of the really hard piano pieces that I just listen to and say to myself, "Not in this lifetime!" I also thought about things like: learning a new language, actually getting AND KEEPING my house clean, running a marathon, writing a book or painting a picture, etc.

Then I had to ask myself, so why not try? If I knew I would not fail, I would be willing to put in a lot of work, time, energy, etc to accomplish my goal - knowing it would pay off in the end. So, what makes me think it wouldn't be worth it to do that anyway? I guess time is one reason. Laziness is another. lol Sometimes it's a fear of failure... I think there's probably a different excuse for each of those "lofty" goals.

I guess one of the things I realized as I thought about this is that there are always good things to be involved with. There are always good things to do and to learn. Since I don't have time to do it all, I have to pick and choose. I am "anxiously engaged" in quite a few "good causes" right now. Could I do more? Yes. Should I? Probably. Uh, make that a "Yes". lol

I think it is always good to occasionally reflect on your life and think of things you'd like to change/improve/etc. It's good to have goals and to constantly be trying to improve oneself. It's good to challenge yourself to be better. It's one way that we learn and grow. But I also think we need to be careful not to beat ourselves up for not "doing it all", because that is just not realistic or healthy.

That said, "What would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail?"

And the award goes to...

Tonight our ward had a lip sync.  Twas fun, let me tell you!  I have all of them on video but it takes only about forever to get them in the right format and upload them, so you only get to see the one I was in. lol



I don't know if you can see it on this but at the end when the "ugly girls" are revealed, they have blacked out teeth.  LOL

The award for best costume went to the Young Women.  The award for best comedy was a tie between the Primary Presidency and the Bishopric.  The ward for overall went to the Relief Society Presidency.  But the ward for Best Choreography.... *drum roll*... went to us (!), the Young Women Presidency! ... Hey, we take what we can get! lol

Silly stuff, they were all pretty good!  We had fun!  I made a pretty good fool out of myself in front of our ward, but it was all good. lol

Bedtime Mishap

Every night we sing the same song to our girls before they go to bed. It started with Acadia but now we do it with Aurora too. Acadia NEVER lets us forget and sometimes makes us sing it more than once. lol It's a church song, one of her favorites, "I am a Child of God".

The other night as I was singing the song and tucking her in, I kind of fluffed up the blankets and just when I got to the line that says, "With parents kind and dear", I bopped her in the face! LOL Oops.

Okay, so maybe they aren't always so "kind and dear". ;)

A Few Shout Outs

I missed yesterday. :S But I never said I would blog EVERY DAY... so deal! ;)

Today I want to give a couple "shout outs".

Did I mention I've been working out and eating better? Yep, I sure have! I'm getting stronger too! I've lost about 12 pounds so far this year and I've lost inches too! :) Still a long way to go though!

To assist me in my endeavor, I have been using a great website called Spark People. You can put in how much you exercise (what kind and how many reps/minutes/weight/etc) and it calculates how much you've burned. You can also put in what you've eaten and it calculates what you've taken in (calories/fat/carbs/protein/etc). You can keep track of your water intake, set weekly goals, long term goals, et. It will set a workout and diet for you if you want. You can weigh in and record your "inches" as well... it also sends out articles everyday about nutrition and exercise and stuff. (I admit, I rarely read those though. lol)

One of the reasons why I love that website is that I have to see what I'm putting in. It makes me think twice about what I eat because I know I need to report it. I have a food scale and that helps me know exactly what I'm eating - exactly. It's been great! :)

I also have to put in a plug for the nifty 100 calorie snack packs that are out there right now. I LOVE THESE!!! It's great because you feel like you are getting a "treat" - and you are, they are so yummy!!! - but you are being sensible about it. If you're going to reach for a cookie, you might as well reach for the 100 calorie pack of cookies! They taste just as good but have so much less guilt!!!

My very favorite snack is popcorn though! And they even have the 100 calorie bags of those! Just for people like me who can (and occasionally do) pop a bag of popcorn and eat the whole thing by themselves! This way I get the whole bag but it's a one serving size bag so I can't "accidentally" eat 3 servings at once! lol Popcorn is one of those good snacks too. Fiber. :) I like to use the "I can't believe it's not butter" spray, which adds the butter flavor without adding the fat.

Sweet! :)

I also strongly suggest getting a weight loss buddy! I'm part of a pretty good sized group of people who are trying to get healthier and that helps. But mostly I have benefited from the constant encouragement of a good friend who is doing the same thing that I am. We have friendly competitions, trying to just "keep up" with each other - and it works!!! We talk daily and share how we're doing. We encourage each other, motivate each other, challenge each othere.... It's great!!!

So those are my big shoutouts! I have been really enjoying eating better and working out. I don't see the weight loss as drastically as I'd like to, but I remind myself that I'm not just burning fat, I'm building muscle. That's so good. :) I'm going to keep at it!

If you have similar goals, consider looking into Spark People, give those 100 calorie packs a try, and get yourself a buddy! Good luck!! :)

Have you noticed?

I'm trying to blog more. I used to be really good then I started to slack off. I'm gonna keep trying to be more regular about it though!

Sometimes it's just that I don't think there's much exciting to say. :S

I do have a cute Cadi-ism to share though.

The other night we were driving home and she was talking about death. Don't ask me why, but this child is kind of obsessed with it. She was saying how she was going to miss Aurora when she (Cadi) died. I tried to reassure her that she was not likely to die soon. She was worried that if she did die, she might forget Rori's name. So I told her that in heaven "time" is different. It doesn't take as long. She was pretty excited about that.

Then she blurted out, "And then I can go to the Great Hamster Wheel in the Sky to see Angel!"

I laughed out loud!!! It was so funny/cute/unexpected. She liked the reaction and tried again...

"And after that, I can go to the Great Doggie Bone in the Sky to see Simon!"

I told her that she probably should have quit while she was ahead. lol

Stand (Stand up! Stand up!) for what you believe in, believe in...

Believe and God (He's the one to back you up!) will stand with you! He'll stand with you! (Oh yeah!)

Sorry, once I got started, I just couldn't stop. I love VeggieTales! lol

Rori has been working on standing!!! It's been going on for a few days but today she stood for almost 10 seconds! That may not seem like a lot but do you realize that she is just barely 7 months old! She's not crawling at all yet but she is definitely showing signs of following in Big Sister's footsteps!

Acadia didn't crawl until she was 9 months old. When she crawled, it was just to get herself to furniture where she could pull herself up and walk along. She crawled for 2 weeks and then walked at 9 1/2 months!!! I'm starting to think that Aurora is going to be doing the same!

Am I ready for this? Nope!!! Heaven help me!!! lol

Grandma

When I was growing up, I never really knew my only living grandma. She was my mom's mom and lived in another state. We rarely saw her. When we did, honestly, the visits weren't "ideal". It wasn't until I was an adult that I learned to appreciate who she was and how she was important to me.

When I was little, my dad's dad married a woman who then became my grandma on his side. My grandma and grandpa on my dad's side didn't celebrate fun things like birthdays and Christmas and we never did anything like "sleeping over at Grandma's and Grandpa's" so I didn't ever feel a really close bond to them either, even though they lived very close to us. Again, as I grew up though, I learned to appreciate who they were and how they were important to me.

Most of my grandparents have since died. The most recent, my dad's step-mother, died just a few days ago. In about an hour and a half there will be a funeral back home and I will not be able to attend. I would have liked to be there but that is one of the down sides of living far from home. :S

My Grandma was a nice woman. She treated us like family even though she didn't have to. She was kind and pretty patient with us when we went to her house. She painted and I loved to look at the paintings on her walls. My favorite were the ocean ones. She had a lot of little trinkets. I remember looking at the little figurines in a case by her front door. She let me play her piano - an upright grand. They were poor but I remember using her real silverware every Thanksgiving at her house.

I sometimes miss the relationships I could have had with my grandparents but didn't. I don't have memories of baking with my grandparents or taking walks together. I never had any heart-to-heart talks, never got any special advice. I don't really blame anyone; it's just the way things were. And most of the time that is okay. But sometimes I think it would have been nice to have been closer to them.

I guess that's why I think it's so important for my girls to have relationships with their grandparents. My girls are so lucky! They have a lot of grandparents!!! And they all are involved in their lives as best they can be! They have pictures and special moments already - with each of their grandmas and grandpas. I'm so glad! I hope that they will continue to develop and nurture these relationships! I hope my girls never take for granted the blessing that their grandparents can be in their lives. :)

Teasers

I compile family video each year to share with our family since we live so far away and they miss out on seeing our family grow.  This year I'm late. *blush*  But(!)... to make up for it, this year I've made 3 montages to add to the end of the dvd! 

Here are the montages for those of you who don't get our dvd.  And for those of you that do... the quality should be much better on your dvd. :)